SUSAN B. ANTHONY

It's four years away from the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the amendment that prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. And last Thursday (August 18) the 96th anniversary of this landmark legislation was celebrated at the Susan B. Anthony Museum in Rochester, just a "hop, skip and a jump" away from the Bullis Room.

Again, we remind you that The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony  by Ida Husted Harper (1851-1931) is on the Bullis Room shelves.  Just ask for help at the library's front desk for help in locating and using this book.  (Just looking through it gives the reader a much greater appreciation of Anthony's accomplishments.)

We also hope you'll click on this link for our 2009 post on this blog, highlighting Nettie Bullis's influence on other women and girls of her generation as well as the work of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

http://bullisbookchronicles.blogspot.de/2009/08/womens-equality.html

NINETEENTH AMENDMENT

This week was the 93rd anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the amendment that guaranteed women citizens of this country the right to vote.

Several of our posts over the last few years have focused on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the role they played in getting this important privilege for women. (Please see our posts of August 27, 2009, March 4, 2010, and March 3, 2013, in which we thank these women for their support of women's suffrage and for drafting the text of the amendment.)

However,  there is another person we haven't thanked--Harry Burn, a 24-year-old Tennessee assembly member who cast the deciding vote, making Tennessee the 36th state needed to ratify the amendment. According to a report on public radio this week, Burn had originally planned to vote against the 19th amendment and changed his mind when he received a note from his mother encouraging him to be a "good boy" and vote for suffrage.

So, in honor of the 93rd anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we again say "thank you" to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton--and "thank you" for the first time to Harry Burn.

(Hmmm...this would have made a good Mother's Day post. Oh, well.)

CELEBRATING WOMEN

Around the globe International Women's Day is recognized in many different ways. Those of us who are privileged to work with the Bullis collection celebrate this day quietly in two ways. First, we again acknowledge (and thank) Nettie Bullis for her generosity to this community. And second, we review the collection's books on great women. We've already posted information on this blog about most of these books; thus we're listing below the posts for your reference.

Please link to our posts on:

March 26, 2009, "Women's History Month," for Bullis books on everyday women who have achieved great accomplishments;

August 19, 2009, "Women's Equality," for Bullis books on Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton;

November 5, 2009, "Women's Sufferage," for Bullis books on Susan B. Anthony;

and

September 10, 2011, "Two Amazing Women," for Bullis books on Sojourer Truth.

March is Women's History Month. We invite you to stop by the Bullis Room during the month to learn more about women's accomplishments and contributions to our society.

WOMEN'S EQUALITY

On August 26, 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed. Since that day, women have exercised their right to vote. Fifty-one years later August 26 was designated as Women's Equality Day to commemorate the passage of that Woman Suffrage Amendment.

Nettie Bullis was 27 years old in 1920. She began working for Gleason Works that same year, and held the position of Assistant Secretary of the Company at the time of her retirement in 1967. It was not common for a woman to advance to a high level of management in those days. This leads us to the conclusions that (1) Nettie Bullis was an extraordinary woman (which we already knew) and (2) the management at Gleason Works recognized early on the importance of equal opportunity, regardless of gender.

Nettie Bullis's father undoubtedly influenced his young daughter to think beyond traditional "women's work" when he allowed her to accompany him and take notes for his surveying projects. Both of her parents may also have encouraged her to read some of the books on great women from their collection. (Please see the list of books on the subject of women in our March 26, 2009 post entitled "Women's History Month.")

One other book in this collection that may have planted some seeds in Nettie Bullis's professional mind is THE LIFE AND WORK OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY F, by Ida Harper, published in 1899 by Bowen-Merrill in Indianapolis. And another document that Nettie Bullis may also have read with interest is ADDRESS TO LEGISLATURE OF NEW YORK, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1854. (Unfortunately, this document was destroyed in the library fire eight years ago so it can't be accessed here, but it is available from other sources and worth taking the time to read.)

The achievements of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton influenced our whole country. Nettie Bullis's achievements and generosity benefit the women, men, and children of this community and county. We are grateful for all three of these women and others like them who furthered women's equality.